Free Republic

Maryland State’s Attorney and chief prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby, announced charges on Friday morning against six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray. Now, Mosby is facing scrutiny over her political ties to the city and close relationship with Billy Murphy, the attorney representing the Gray family. According to a report by the Daily Mail, concerns about the close ties have been raised by Baltimore defense attorney, Warren Brown. Prior to the announced charges, Brown said that Mosby was under intense pressure to issue an indictment in the case: “I think she has too much pressure to not indict, from...

A Colorado woman who police say admitted cutting the fetus from a pregnant stranger stabbed her victim first with shards of glass from a broken lava lamp before performing a crude Cesarean section, court documents showed on Friday. Dynel Catrece Lane, 34, is charged with attempted first-degree murder, felony assault and unlawful termination of a pregnancy stemming from the attack in March on Michelle Wilkins in the town of Longmont, 30 miles north of Denver. The 26-year-old Wilkins, who was seven months pregnant, survived the assault, but her unborn baby girl died. In a brief filed ahead of a preliminary...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Thursday that his absence during last week’s confirmation of Attorney General Loretta Lynch was the same as voting against her. “There was no significance to the final vote, and I had a scheduling conflict,” Cruz said, according to media reports. “Under the Senate rules, absence is the equivalent of a no vote,” the 2016 GOP presidential candidate added. “It is identical procedurally.” Senators confirmed Lynch as the nation’s new attorney general on April 23 in a 56-43 vote. Cruz, a notable opponent of her nomination, said Thursday he abstained because a majority of Republicans had...

The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople has strongly denied a report on a Greek religious news site that the committee preparing the agenda for the 2016 Pan-Orthodox Council is seeking “to submit a methodology whereby the Holy and Great Council will express its solidarity with ‘sexual minorities.’” “Not only was there no such decision by the special committee that I chair, but absolutely not a single member of this committee expressed such support, whether direct or indirect, of the lifestyle of these ‘minorities,’” said Archbishop John Zizioulas of Pergamon. “Not demonstrating violence against sinners emanates from the Gospel principle of love...

Hillary cited all sorts of stats about incarceration rates in her speech yesterday.  I could write paragraphs about her misuse of the statistics to make a point rather than build understanding.  But at bottom of all the statistics she cited is one simple question, “In each instance that is a part of the stats was the defendant guilty?”  If so then regardless of the statistics, the law was followed and presumably justice was done.  To contend differently is to contend that somehow the law and justice parted company. Justice is measured in the facts of each individual case.  It is not...

A chat took place on Rush Limbaugh's show today that referenced something Obama said back in 2008 and what Sharpton reiterated a few days ago. Obama said, "We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." Sharpton said, “There must be national policy and national law on policing. We can’t go from state to state, we’ve got to have national law to protect people against these continued questions.” I got to thinking...

If you aren’t following the arguments over same-sex marriage before the Supreme Court, you should be. Even if you don’t cater weddings or sell pizza in Indiana, your religious freedom is in danger. For detailed accounts of the debate and the questions asked by justices that might be readable tea leaves, see Ryan Anderson’s analysis and the capsule summary provided by Russell Moore and Andrew T. Walker.The outcome of this week’s debate will determine whether orthodox American Christians will fall to the status of dhimmis, the third-class Christian citizens of sharia Muslim states. (Dhimmis have bare freedom of worship, but...

Dear Black Thugs: To each of you I echo what actor Terrence Howard’s character told his gangbanger brother in the film “Crash”: “You embarrass me. You embarrass yourself.” From Ferguson to Baltimore, the whole world is watching as you run wild. Thanks to you, plate-glass store windows shatter into shards. You pry ATMs from walls to drain them of cash. And you enjoyed a 100-percent-off shopping spree — damn the consequences. How does ripping off a bottle of whiskey from a smoldering liquor store help us overcome? Look at your devastation: You burned 17 businesses to the ground in Ferguson,...

Today's predictable "Baltimore! Oh Baltimore!"editorial in the Wall St. Journal (The Blue-City Model) comes to an obvious conclusion with the old policy bromides the Journal's editors always slather on: Of late the progressives have been making a comeback, led by Bill de Blasio in New York and the challenge to sometime reform Mayor Rahm Emanuel in Chicago. This week’s nightmare in Baltimore shows where this leads. It’s time for a new urban renewal, this time built on the ideas of private economic development, personal responsibility, “broken windows” policing, and education choice. All of which would lead sensible people -- those...

Miami (AFP) - Flying people to deep space -- like Mars or an asteroid -- is high on NASA's wish list, but research on mice suggested Friday that extended radiation exposure permanently harms the brain. Central nervous system damage and cognitive impairments were observed in lab animals that were exposed to highly energetic charged particles -- similar to the galactic cosmic rays that astronauts would encounter during long space flights -- said researchers at the University of California, Irvine. "This is not positive news for astronauts deployed on a two- to three-year round trip to Mars," said lead author Charles...

"Last year, NASA’s advanced propulsion research wing made headlines by announcing the successful test of a physics-defying electromagnetic drive, or EM drive. Now, this futuristic engine, which could in theory propel objects to near-relativistic speeds, has been shown to work inside a space-like vacuum. NASA Eagleworks made the announcement quite unassumingly via NASASpaceFlight.com. There’s also a major discussion going on about the engine and the physics that drives it at the site’s forum." ... "The NASASpaceflight.com group has given consideration to whether the experimental measurements of thrust force were the result of an artifact. Despite considerable effort within the NASASpaceflight.com...

A Miami woman charged with DUI manslaughter allegedly texted her boyfriend "Drunk driving woo" just minutes before a fatal collision that killed her passenger. Mila Dago had been fighting with her boyfriend and sending him a barrage of breakup texts in the early hours of Aug. 14, 2013, according to documents released by the prosecution on Thursday. The last three messages, minutes before the fatal crash, were "Driving drunk woo," "I'll be dead thanks to you," and "Lata." Then, according to the Miami Herald, she blew through a red light and T-boned a moving truck with her rented Smart car,...

The charges against six Baltimore Police officers in the case of a death caused by an alleged “80 percent severed” spine may go too far, and some are likely to be dismissed by a judge and/or fail if there is ever a trial, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf, because of at least two important factors: causation and divided responsibility. --snip-- Since the statement of probable cause read by Baltimore lead prosecutor Marilyn J. Mosby did not include any explanation of exactly how or when the fatal injury occurred, it may be difficult to establish that any of the...

The Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon, a Labor Day television tradition for decades, is ending. MDA said Friday that “the new realities of television viewing and philanthropic giving” make it the right time to end the annual event, memorably hosted for most of its life by Jerry Lewis. Celebrities including Frank Sinatra, John Lennon and Michael Jackson to Pitbull and Jennifer Lopez have performed on the telethon, first hosted by Lewis and Dean Martin in 1956. It moved to Labor Day in 1966. The telethon ran 21 and a half hours in 2010, Lewis’ last year as host, and had dwindled...

Ion Mihai Pacepa on Raul Castro's yacht in Cuba, 1974. Photo courtesy of Ion Mihai Pacepa. Washington D.C., May 1, 2015 / 03:34 pm (CNA).- Espionage deep in the heart of Europe. Secrets in the KGB. Defection from a communist nation. Ion Mihai Pacepa has seen his share of excitement, serving as general for Communist Romania’s secret police before defecting to the United States in the late 1970s. The highest-ranking defector from communism in the ‘70s, he spoke to CNA recently about the connection between the Soviet Union and Liberation Theology in Latin America. Below are excerpts of the interview....

Bloods member Nikko Caldwell insisted in an interview with MSNBC’s Toure that the gang’s truce with their rivals the Crips would continue indefinitely because they have made the right ties with certain “political officials” in the city. The Cycle co-host completely dropped the ball after such a shocking admission, however, when he failed to ask Caldwell to name names. What’s more, when Pastor Donte Hickman insisted that tapping the “natural power and influence” of gangs like the Bloods and the Crips was “the democratic way,” Toure seemed completely unfazed. …

Driving is a team sport. You’re sharing the road with a lot of other people you know little about, and yet, your fate could lie in their hands. As someone who reads a lot of what other drivers have to say online and elsewhere, I have become more afraid: The following are pulled straight from several horses’ mouths. “…just another stupid law made by the canadian government to get more more out of tax payers. it goes the same for seat belts in my eyes. who’s really at risk? are you indangering anyones life? no… its a choise you make...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans appear to be suspicious of Hillary Rodham Clinton's honesty, and even many Democrats are only lukewarm about her presidential candidacy, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. Is she strong and decisive? Yes, say a majority of people. But inspiring and likable? Only a minority think so.

Tullytown, Pa. (Ammoland.com) – Kalashnikov USA , manufacturer of Kalashnikov style firearms, announces the company will relocate to South Florida. The new facility will include corporate offices and allow for manufacturing, warehousing and shipping functions to occur in one location. The move, which will take place over the next several months, will not affect the projected 2015 second quarter shipping of the new Kalashnikov USA firearms. “With the growth of the company, manufacturing requirements and the rebranding efforts now underway, Kalashnikov USA felt the time was right to move the headquarters where we can incorporate our new manufacturing capabilities,” Thomas...

This is not what the world considers hate speech. What the world considers hate speech is opposing this.“Egyptian Cleric Saad Abu Aziz: Jews Are a Malignant Tumor That Must Be Eradicated,” MEMRI, April 24, 2015 (thanks to Pamela Geller): In an April 24 Friday sermon, which he posted on the Internet, Egyptian cleric Saad Yusuf Abu Aziz declared that the Jews are “a malignant tumor” as demonstrated by their “dark history.” The sermon was delivered in Al-Zawiya Al-Gharbiya Mosque in Ghamrin, in Monufia governorate.